


Council

by Kharon



Series: Red [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Future Fic, Gen, Next Generation, Uchiha, Uchiha Clan-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-06 02:04:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11590707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kharon/pseuds/Kharon
Summary: Sasori never imagined how it would be, to plan the murder of a kage, but if someone had asked him his answer would have been far off the reality of it.





	Council

Sasori never imagined how it would be, to plan the murder of a kage, but if someone had asked him his answer would have been far off the reality of it.

Nothing of this can ever be tracked back to Kizuna or Kichiro, and even less to Nara Shikano, his cousin and future Kyudaime Hokage. If any of them would be called into doubt hell would break loose, sparking the civil war the Uchiha brothers are so desperately trying to avoid that they are willing to kill their sworn leader for it.

Karin made them tea, setting the table methodically before disappearing from the room without another word. Whether she chooses to remain unaware of the treason they are planning or simply feigns ignorance he doesn't know. It's better not to ask.

The Uchiha arrived first of course, Akane accompanied by two middle-aged women with dark hair and eyes; her mother and her aunt.

Uchiha Tsuzumi could as well have been a born Uchiha if it wasn't for her angular face and hooded eyes. She's older than Akashi, and there is a calculating slant in her gaze he approves of. 

They are nothing alike, mother and daughter, a water and a fire type he isn't sure he ever wants to see clash.

Uchiha Sakae, Uchiha Sasuke's only daughter, is a contrast to both of them. She isn't as fierce as Akane, and Akashi imagines her to have been way less temperamental even when she was younger, but there is also an edge to her that is missing in her sister-in-law, the grace and deadliness of a born predator emitting from her every step. She's _dangerous_.

There are things he wants to ask, about the ANBU tattoo visible beneath the mesh shirt of Sakae's shoulder, about the book that Kizuna said belongs to his wife, about how Akane behaves more demurely in the presence of her aunt and mother than she ever did with the twins, but it's neither the time or the place for that.

 _Later, maybe_ , he thinks a moment before the door to the corridor slides open and a young woman who is unmistakably his cousin's daughter walks in followed by one of the most beautiful women he has ever had the privilege to lay his eyes upon.

Glossy black hair falls down to the middle of her back, a dark blue yukata emphasizing her pale skin and sky-blue eyes. There is a touch of crimson on her lips, her cheeks are rosy-tinted and-

If it had been a genjutsu he wouldn't ever have fallen for it, Sasori is too good a ninja for that, but this is _real_ beauty and that's what makes it so much more effective. It's honed and used to perfection, a lethal skill set he admires even more for knowing that if he'd been her target he would already be dead.

He bows to the daughter first and the mother, more deeply, second.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Nara."

The daughter sneers. Her mother however returns the bow, poise perfect, her hair falling around her face like a black waterfall when she lowers her head. 

"There has been much talk about your person lately, Sasori of the Sand," she says lightly, but it's as much an acknowledgement of his skill as it's an assessment of the trouble that usually follows in his wake.

"I bring unrest wherever I go, no need to deceive you otherwise, my lady," he answers honestly, and then motions for the newcomers to seat themselves on the empty side of the table, "But this is precisely why you are here, isn't it?"

She laughs then, low and melodically, while her daughter growls between clenched teeth, giving Akashi a look that makes very clear her opinion of him – it's so easy to be young, to have friends, enemies, and not much in-between. He dreams of those times some nights, the times when his sister was his world and he thought that nothing could ever separate them.

They sit down and are handed a cup of tea each then, the Nara girl sitting beside Akane, both glaring at the other. There is enough animosity between them to fill the room, even he as an outsider can see that, but no word is spoken of it and so there's a short breath of silence.

"Three days," the lady Nara finally says, putting down her cup, "In three days on top of the Hokage mountain, just before daybreak. She usually makes her guards wait for her at the bottom of the monument. I'd advise to you to lure her into the forest. You will have half an hour before her absence is noted."

It's crisp and clear, no embellishment or shrinking back. The murder of a kage isn't the kind of business one can change one's opinion on.

They were in it from the moment the first word of it was said, all of them. Even speaking of such thing is treason, and when Akashi looks around the table he sees grim faces reflecting the reality of it. Should he fail all Uchiha will die. The twins, their siblings, Akane, the children – Sasori's not naïve enough to believe that the Hokage will spare anyone. Not when it's _the second time_ for them.

"Why are you in it?" he asks the two Nara women, "Just because your husband and father gets to be Hokage?"

"Mind your words, _scorpion_." the girl snarls, the pottery rattling on the table when she lifts herself to a half-standing position, "We're no traitors to our village. We do this because it's the best for our country, not because there's personal gain in it for us."

There is an unsaid _unlike you_ at the end of her sentence, and it cuts the air between them like a knife. One of the Uchiha makes a foreboding sound.

He turns to face her fully, holding tightly to his emotions lest he lets the implication get to him. _This isn't the place_ , Akashi reminds himself, trying to stay calm.

"I'm a traitor, is that what you wanna hear, girl?" he asks her, swallowing down both the cold fury and the self-contempt that rise in his throat like bile at the admission, "I'm a traitor to my sister. My sister who I will have to either look in the eye while I kill her, or by whose hands I'll die. The sister I wronged by leaving her alone with our burden. I'll live with that knowledge to the end of my days, as I deserve to… so you tell me how it's in the best interest of your village for _your father_ of all people to become Hokage."

She looks gobsmacked for an instant, but then the righteous fury is back in her dark eyes. Akashi tries to not see his aunt in her.

"My father is a honest man, a good man," she retorts confidently and more composed than he expected, "He loves Konoha, he loves her people, he knows that there has to be change so there can finally be peace in our land. He won't do what's best for himself, or our clan, or the ninja even, he'll do what's necessary that there won't be civil war. _For everyone_. He's not like your people, he doesn't put himself before everyone else!"

"Shikara!" her mother scolds, her beautiful face distorted with anger, but her daughter brushes her complaint away with a lazy move of her hand.

Akashi wonders if she knows how demeaning a gesture like this is to one's own mother, to remind her that while she became a part of the Nara clan by marriage she will still never hold any real power because she wasn't _born_ Nara. His father, uncle Kankurou, least of all _Temari_ , wouldn't have let him get away with treating his mother that way.

Slowly, controlled, he sinks back down on his cushion, holding eye contact all the while.

"My aunt Temari was one of the best shinobi I ever met," he begins and sees the moment when dread starts replacing the rage in her eyes, "She was always the first to volunteer for duty and the last to leave her post. She slept even less than my father. She never smiled.

She died when I was eight, and the desert cried for her. Your grandfather came to her funeral, even if I didn't know who he was at the time. He stood and paid his respect long after the other people were gone. Your father wasn't with him. I learnt that I had a cousin the day after, and a week ago was the first time I met him in person.

It's been 32 years, and still I don't think he was ever there."

The lady Nara proves him right when she averts her eyes from his gaze.

"She abandoned him!" Shikara shoots back defiantly, "She went back to Suna and left him nothing."

He looks at her for who she is, tries to see the person she is when stripped of her upbringing, tries not to judge. He fails. He fails, because all he can see when he looks at her is Temari's face.

"The day she died he became _no Sabaku_ in her stead, _the desert's blood_. He will always be Suna. She gave him everything she had."

Her cup falls over when she gets up violently and storms out. Tea spills over the table and onto the floor, forming a mud-colored stain on the expensive _tatami_.

Akashi can't bring himself to regret his words.

**Author's Note:**

> I treat, as you may have noticed already, _sabaku no_ as a title. A title of the Kage's family to be more precise; one that can only be inherited and that grants certain rights in Sunagakure. That's why it means a lot that Akashi was stripped of it.
> 
> This is one of the points where two perspectives clash:  
> Akashi's as a citizen of Suna, the nephew of Temari, who has a high opinion of his aunt, and Shikara's as a citizen of Konoha, the granddaughter of a Suna kunoichi she never met and even her father can't really remember. There is no "wrong" and "right" side here. The damage was done almost 40 years ago by two people that are both long dead – that's how I like to do Shikamaru/Temari, with a realistic take, to show the issues they would have had trying to raise a half Suna, half Konoha child.


End file.
